Mediaboss Marketing

Imagine a debate has begun in the White House over finding a pretext to attack Iran. The countrys vilification of Israel, its support for Hezbollah and terror, its designs for control of Syria and its jailing of Americans had all been fleshed out. Before any decisions are made, President Donald Trump will need a history lesson from his security advisers. Heres how the conversation could go:

Bad, says POTUS. Bad.

The national security adviser then begins to list a number of reasons why the leaders of Iran act the way they do: "We do need to understand Iranian perceptions a bit. There's the 1953 coup; it overthrew a democratically elected government in Iran. Theres some difference of opinion whether the United States had as much to do with the overthrow as the British, but most Iranians blame the U.S.

OK, says POTUS. So we were bad.

Then there's the Iran-Iraq war, says the national security adviser. Iran, then ruled by the Ayatollah Khomeini (the kidnappers of Americans, you recall the hostage crisis) was attacked by Saddam Hussein in 1980. In an eight-year war "

Wait a minute, interrupts POTUS. Saddam invaded Iran?

Yes, and Saddams troops killed more than 250,000 Iranians," says the national security adviser. Given Iran's population at the time, that would be equal to about 1.5 million Americans being killed today. A lot worse than 9/11.

Gee, replies POTUS. Bad, bad.

And that's not all. The Reagan administration you know Dick Cheney, et al they supported Saddam, gave him a green light to attack, or at least a yellow, and shared lots of intelligence with Saddam's generals.

Whoa, says POTUS. I never knew that. Of course, I was busy building casinos in Atlantic City then. I had my own headaches with nasty immigrant workers; bad.

The national security adviser continues, ignoring the presidents tangent: Worse, Saddam used poison gas against Iranian soldiers. It was probably what led Khomeini to seek peace in 1988.

That man would never seek peace! declares POTUS.

No, Khomeini was the first ayatollah, Mr. President. Todays leader is Ayatollah Khameini, pronounced hamm-men-eee, not ho-man-eee.

Oh, still bad.

And do you remember the Vincennes?

I sure do," replies POTUS. Melania and I had a lovely, just lovely, walk through there when we were in Paris a few weeks ago. Its a beautiful park.

No, Mr. President. Im referring to the USS Vincennes, a U.S. Navy guided missile cruiser that shot down an Iranian civilian airliner in 1988; 290 Iranians, including children, died. Many of them were traveling to Mecca for the hajj; you know, the Muslim pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. They were shot out of the air by our ship in Iranian waters.

The Associated Press

FILE - In this July 3, 1988 file photo, the crew of the USS Vincennes stands at attention to salute the USS Samuel B. Roberts which leaves the Persian Gulf. In 1988, the USS Samuel B. Roberts struck a mine and nearly sank. That sparked a daylong naval battle between Iran and the U.S. in which American forces attacked two Iranian oil rigs and sank or damaged six Iranian vessels. A few months later, the USS Vincennes in the Strait of Hormuz mistook an Iran Air flight heading to Dubai for an attacking fighter jet, shooting down the plane and killing all 290 people onboard. (AP Photo/Greg English, File)

FILE - In this July 3, 1988 file photo, the crew of the USS Vincennes stands at attention to salute the USS Samuel B. Roberts which leaves the Persian Gulf. In 1988, the USS Samuel B. Roberts struck a mine and nearly sank. That sparked a daylong naval battle between Iran and the U.S. in which American forces attacked two Iranian oil rigs and sank or damaged six Iranian vessels. A few months later, the USS Vincennes in the Strait of Hormuz mistook an Iran Air flight heading to Dubai for an attacking fighter jet, shooting down the plane and killing all 290 people onboard. (AP Photo/Greg English, File) (The Associated Press)

Sad, says POTUS. All those beautiful children just like in Syria, huh?

Well, we did admit it, and we said we were sorry. The U.S. treasury paid $61.8 million to the families of those who died.

That's a lot of dough, says POTUS. But still, very, very sad.

Evan Vucci / Associated Press

Mr. President, one more angle to think about. You were well received in Warsaw last month. Do you know what countrys population likes America more than any other except Poland?

Israel? guessed POTUS. Russia?

No, Mr. President: Iran. Seventy per cent of the population of Iran is under the age of 30. All were born since the Shah was overthrown and the ayatollahs and the revolutionary guards came to power. And they love the United States our culture, music, education, spirit. Were we to attack Iran, they would lose all respect for us and support the Revolutionary Guards, whom they now despise.

POTUS face contorts, his lips twist sideways, his nose wrinkles. So why are we talking about attacking Iran?

Back to square one, sir. We do need to examine this carefully. There are other options than war. There is coercive diplomacy. Their rulers are not nice guys, but there's a very complex power structure there. They are pursuing their national interests and are ready to exploit weaknesses in the region. After all, for so many years, they were surrounded by pretty bad people the Taliban in Afghanistan, who killed their ambassadors: Saddam who waged war on them before the situation changed.

Well, says POTUS. Who helped them out?

Our view: A year after the terrorist leader's death, the organization he founded has been substantially weakened, but its offshoots in Yemen, Somalia, Iraq and elsewhere remain a threat

Our view: A year after the terrorist leader's death, the organization he founded has been substantially weakened, but its offshoots in Yemen, Somalia, Iraq and elsewhere remain a threat

Mr. President, you know the answer. The United States did. We attacked the Taliban after 9/11, and defeated them until Messrs. Bush and Cheney decided to attack Iraq. And Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney deposed Saddam something the Iranians applauded though we didn't do a very good job of stabilizing the place, which led to ISIS, which led

So, we were pretty nice to Iran then, huh? interrupts POTUS. Why dont they like us, again?

Sad.

Frederic B. Hill (fhill207@gmail.com), a former foreign correspondent for The Baltimore Sun, conducted wargames and conferences on Iran and national security issues for the Department of State. He is co-editor with Stephens Broening of The Life of Kings; The Baltimore Sun and the Golden Age of the American Newspaper (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016).

Read the rest here:
A history lesson on Iran for the president - Baltimore Sun

Terrorism around the world declined globally last year, according to the Country Reports on Terrorism 2016. But Iran continues to destabilize the Middle East through proxies such as Hezbollah, exacerbating conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

Despite the worldwide dip in terrorism related deaths and fatalities, the report said that militant groups continued to exploit ungoverned areas in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia to plan attacks. And it flagged militant inspired attacks by "home grown lone offenders" who struck in France, Germany and the United States.

"ISIS remains the most capable terror organization in 2016," even as it came under pressure from the US-led coalition fighting the group, Justin Siberell, the State Department's acting coordinator for counterterrorism, said Wednesday. Siberell said as well that threats remain in the form of a "resilient al Qaeda" and "an Iranian regime that remained a leading state sponsor of terrorism."

President Donald Trump has had Iran in his sights, and has been highly critical of the international pact to restrain its nuclear program that the Obama administration championed.

Siberell said the 13% drop in terror attacks from 2015 is due to reduced violence in Syria, Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen. He said attacks increased in Iraq, Turkey and Somalia and while terrorists struck in 104 countries in 2016, 55% of the attacks took place in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Nigeria and Pakistan.

ISIS was responsible for more attacks and deaths than any other group, Siberell said, a grisly trophy claimed by the Taliban in 2015.

The country terror report, mandated by Congress, made no direct reference to Trump's ban on travelers and refugees from six Muslim-majority countries, though the individual countries were mentioned.

Asked about the restriction on people from Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, Siberell said that "we as a government want to make sure those governments have capabilities in place" to deal with terrorist groups. "There is in general a concern," he said.

The report notes thatISIS attacks outside its territory are becoming increasingly important as it comes under greater pressure from the US-led coalition and notes that social media remains vital to its recruitment.

Al Qaedaalso remains a significant worldwide threat, particularly in Yemen, despite sustained US pressure, the report says.

The report treads lightly over the ongoing tensions in the Persian Gulf, where Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt have cut diplomatic relations with Qatar -- home to a major US military base -- accusing it of backing terrorists and of cozying up to Iran.

With Secretary of State Rex Tillerson continuing his efforts to help find a solution, the agency's report carefully notes that all countries involved are members of the anti ISIS coalition and are engaged in counter terrorism initiatives.

The report notes thata common thread linking many terrorists was adherence to violent extremist ideology encouraged bya fundamentalist strain of Sunni Islam.

The report notes that many critics see Saudi Arabia as an exporter of this kind of fundamentalism, then goes on to detail various Saudi government efforts to counter extremism.

The report takes a similar approach with Qatar, avoiding mention of the current dispute and offering detailed listings of the ways Doha works to fight terror.

The report is equally careful about the Palestinian Authority, saying that it is doing what it can, where it has theauthority to do so, but more can be done.

It says that during the tenure of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority "has taken significant steps" to ensure that "official institutions in the West Bank under its control do not create or disseminate content that incites violence."

The report also notesthat Abbas has tried to address terror financing, but the decree he issued "does not fully meet international standards as it does not criminalize all forms of material support or the financing of an individual terrorist in the absence of a link to a specific terrorist act."

And it notes that while some Palestinian Authority leaders have made provocative and inflammatory comments, the PA itself "has made progress in reducing official rhetoric that could be considered incitement to violence."

Read the original:
Iran remains top terror sponsor as global attacks decline - CNN

Congress, which was overwhelmingly opposed to the nuclear deal when it was signed, is working on new sanctions. Republicans in particular have pressed Mr. Trump to toughen his approach. In a recent letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, four senators said Iran continues to wage regional aggression, sponsor international terrorism, develop ballistic missile technology and oppress the Iranian people. Theres truth in that. But the nuclear deal was intended to alleviate only the nuclear threat, and they, like other critics, fail to acknowledge that it represented important progress toward decreasing the risk of war in the region.

Top American officials have turned up their rhetoric and have hinted at support for regime change, despite the dismal record in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. Mr. Tillerson accused Iran of seeking regional hegemony at the expense of American allies like Saudi Arabia. Our policy toward Iran is to push back on this hegemony and to work toward support of those elements inside of Iran that would lead to a peaceful transition of that government, he told a congressional committee. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis recently called Iran the most destabilizing influence in the Middle East.

Since the 1979 revolution that installed a theocracy in Iran, American leaders have periodically toyed with regime change. But some experts say this time is more serious, because Mr. Trump accepts the simplistic view of Sunni-led Saudi Arabia that Shiite-led Iran is to blame for all thats wrong in the region, taking sides in the feud between two branches of Islam.

The Saudis, who were already facing off against Iran-backed rebels in Yemen, have taken an even harsher stance since their leadership change. This month, they created a crisis by mounting a regional boycott against Qatar, which has relations with Iran. Israel also considers Iran a virulent threat, one reason for a deepening alignment between Israel and the Sunni states, and from time to time has reportedly urged America to attack Iran or considered doing so itself.

Anti-Iran voices outside government are trying to push Mr. Trump and Congress toward confrontation with Iran. The head of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a hawkish group that tried to block the Iran nuclear deal, urged Mr. Trump in a recent Wall Street Journal opinion article to systemically dismantle Iranian power country by country in the Middle East and to strengthen Irans pro-democracy forces. Prominent Trump supporters like John Bolton, a former ambassador to the United Nations; Newt Gingrich, former House speaker; and Rudolph Giuliani, former New York mayor, are pressing Mr. Trump to abandon the deal and are speaking out on behalf of the Mujahedeen Khalq, exiled Iranian dissidents who back regime change.

Most Americans are aware of Irans crimes against this country, including the 52 Americans taken hostage in 1979; the 241 Marines killed in the 1983 bombing of their barracks in Lebanon; and the 1996 bombing of the Air Force quarters in Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. Perhaps less known are events that still anger Iranians like the 1953 coup aided by the C.I.A. that ousted Irans democratically elected leader, Mohammed Mossadegh, and Americas intelligence support for Iraq in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

Irans grievances do not make its recent behavior any less concerning. Tehran continues to fund Hezbollah and other extremists; detain Americans; and work to expand its reach, including in Iraq. Iran and the United States appear to be entering a particularly risky time. As the Islamic State gets pushed out of Iraq and Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia, along with their proxy forces, will be competing for control. Any attempt at regime change in Iran could destabilize the volatile Middle East in even more unpredictable ways.

Irans government continues to be torn between anti-American hard-liners and moderates like President Hassan Rouhani who are willing to engage with America. Mr. Trump would make a grave mistake if instead of trying to work with those moderate forces he led the nation closer to war.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter.

A version of this editorial appears in print on July 20, 2017, on Page A24 of the New York edition with the headline: Avoiding War With Iran.

Continue reading here:
Avoiding War With Iran - New York Times

By Matt Trevithick By Matt Trevithick July 20 at 2:56 PM

Matt Trevithick spent 41 days in Irans Evin prison after completing an intensive immersion program at Tehran University. He is the co-founder of several companies, including a Middle East-based monitoring and evaluation firm, and author of An Undesirable Element.

An American student, Xiyue Wang, who was in Tehran studying a dynasty that ended nearly a century ago, has been detained and sentenced to jail in Iran, likely without convincing proof. Universities in the United States must ban sending students to Iran until it demonstrates a willingness to stop turning them into geopolitical pawns. Based on my experiences, and in light of the long list of Westerners detained by the Iranian government in recent decades, it is reckless for American universities to ignore the real threat that students face when they travel to Iran.

This is a painful position to for me to promote. Such exchanges have had a transformative effect on my life. I was introduced to the Middle East through the Beirut Exchange. I worked for four years at the American University of Afghanistan, having the honor of representing Americas envied higher education system while doing my part to find more effective tools for U.S. foreign policy through research and writing. I wrote a short book detailing the life of a little-known Persian poet from Afghanistan whose studies in the United States in the 1970sled to a groundbreaking PhD documenting the previously unknown influence of Rumi on Walt Whitman. I am a member of the annual Dartmouth Conference, established in the 1960s so that prominent civilians in Russia and the United States could work together to avoid war; all its participants readily agree that student exchanges must continue, a position the institution has hewed toeven at times when the Washington consensus considered the Soviet Union a rough approximation of the Death Star.

But I, too, became caught up in geopolitical forces when I was studying Farsi at Tehran University. I was grabbed off the street without reason or apology and ended up spending 41 days in Evin prison.

Exchanges and related programs represent an important component of relations between countries, even those that cant find much to agree on. At one end of the spectrum, such initiatives model polite behavior between nations looking to impart a positive image, and at the other, they assist with the generation of informed and creative approaches to regional policy, authored by folks who have actually been there. In either case, they are invaluable for building trust in the community of nations.

As a result, most governments have the decency to decouple politics from young foreign students researching obscure topics in dusty libraries.

But this is not true in Iran, where a hostile approach to all things America is the bedrock of Iranian policy. That suspicion occasionally bleeds into a skepticism of our Western allies; European students I met in Tehran spoke with muted voices about their purposefully mundane studies, which consisted of muted discussions with academics who knew far more than they would ever publish. As for me, simply walking up and down Tehrans main thoroughfare, Vali Asr, most days after classes with a Lonely Planet guide in hand, proved strange to the same government that was admitting American tourists in unprecedented numbers, and I wound up in solitary confinement as a result.

Iran has never shown that these exchanges can be done in good faith without extreme risk to students and researchers. Xiyue Wangs sentencing is not an outlier. After I was released, the outpouring of support from academics and students from around the world as well as requests to pass on any information on loved ones who had gone missing in Tehran was overwhelming, with more than a few darkly joking about my admission to Evin University, given its reputation for targeting academics. There are almost certainly more foreigners in these jails than the Western public is aware of. I personally know at least two Americans and several more Europeans who were detained and released without fanfare, who stay quiet because they continue to work on regional issues. And knowing firsthand the unique pain that detention causes family members, I think such exchanges with Iran are something that should give American academia pause.

But even as American students should stop going to Iran, the U.S. government should keep the door open to foreign students, including Iranians.

Simply put, Iranian students thrive on American campuses. Maryam Mirzakhani, who was born in Tehran and sadly died from illness last week in the United States, redefined the poetry of mathematics at Harvard and Stanford and received the Fields Medal for her work the first woman in history to be given the award. Jasmin Moghbeli, elegantly profiled this month in the New Yorker, is an Iranian American who studied at MIT, flew 150 combat missions in Afghanistan as a Marine and is now a member of NASAs newest class of astronauts. Iranian Americans are, depending on whom you ask, leading or in the running for the most highly educated minority group in the United States.

And when theyre admitted to study here, its likely they will come away with the understanding that the kind of cultural conformity Iran dictates back home is self-defeating, a root cause of violence, and, as Iran needs no reminder of, very bad for business.

We must stay true to our deepest American values while trying to minimize the risk inherent in engaging with todays world. With this open-minded realism, the United States doesnt need to slam the door shut to students completely. But until Iran can ensure that Western academics can study and better understand the fascinating Persian world in peace, its best that American universities keep their distance.

Read more here:
American colleges should stop recklessly sending students to Iran - Washington Post

Irans national flags are seen on a square in Tehran in 2012, a day before the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/Reuters

WASHINGTON Iran continues to be the worlds leading state sponsor of terrorism, the Trump administration said Wednesday in a new report that also noted a decline in the number of terrorist attacks globally between 2015 and 2016.

In its annual Country Reports on Terrorism released Wednesday, the State Department said Iran was the planets foremost state sponsor of terrorism in 2016, a dubious distinction the country has held for many years. It said Iran was firm in its backing of anti-Israel groups as well as proxies that have destabilized already devastating conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. It also said Iran continued to recruit in Afghanistan and Pakistan for Shiite militia members to fight in Syria and Iraq. And, it said Iranian support for Lebanons Hezbollah movement was unchanged.

In terms of non-state actors, the report said the Islamic State group was responsible for more attacks and deaths than any other group in 2016, and was seeking to widen its operations particularly as it lost territory in Iraq and Syria. It carried out 20 percent more attacks in Iraq in 2016 compared with 2015, and its affiliates struck in more than 20 countries, according to the report. Iran has been designated a state sponsor of terrorism by the State Department and subjected to a variety of U.S. sanctions since 1984, and many of the activities outlined in the report are identical to those detailed in previous reports. But, this years finding comes as the Trump administration moves to toughen its stance against Iran. The administration is expected to complete a full review of its policy on Iran next month.

President Donald Trump has been particularly critical of the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration and only reluctantly certified early this week that Iran remained entitled to some sanctions relief under its provisions.

Iran remained the foremost state sponsor of terrorism in 2016 as groups supported by Iran maintained their capability to threaten U.S. interests and allies, said the report, the Trump administrations first, which was released just a day after the administration slapped new sanctions on Iran for ballistic missile activity. Some of those sanctions were imposed on people and companies affiliated with Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the report said continues to play a destabilizing role in military conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

Iran used a unit of the IRGC, the Qods Force, to implement foreign policy goals, provide cover for intelligence operations and create instability in the Middle East, the report said. It added that Iran has publicly acknowledged its involvement in Syria and Iraq.

Hezbollah worked closely with Iran to support the attempt by Syrian President Bashar Assads government to maintain and control territory, according to the report. And with Iranian support, Hezbollah continued to develop long-term attack capabilities and infrastructure around the world, it said.

New sanctions were slapped on individuals and groups tied to Irans ballistic missile program, hours after the State Department again certified that Iran is complying with the nuclear deal struck two years ago. William Brangham speaks with chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner and Nick Schifrin about the schism within the Trump administration about Iran and the nuclear deal.

The report also accused Iran of supplying weapons, money and training to militant Shia groups in Bahrain, maintaining a robust cyberterrorism program and refusing to identify or prosecute senior members of the al-Qaida network that it has detained.

As in previous reports, Sudan and Syria were also identified as state sponsors of terrorism.

In its final days, the Obama administration suspended some sanctions against Sudan in recognition of that countrys improved counterterrorism record. In early July, the Trump administration extended those suspensions by three months. Countries can be removed from the list at any time following a formal review process, but the report offered no explanation for why Sudan remains on it.

In fact, it said counterterrorism is now a national priority for the Khartoum government and that Sudan is a cooperative partner of the United States on counterterrorism, despite its continued presence on the state sponsors of terrorism list.

Despite the activities of Iran and groups like the Islamic State in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Syria, and Boko Haram and al-Shabab in Africa, the total number of terrorist attacks in 2016 decreased by 9 percent from 11,774 in 2015 to 11,072, according to statistics compiled for the report by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland.

That reduction was accompanied by a 13 percent decrease in deaths from 28,328 to 25,621 from such attacks over the same period. Of those killed in 2016, 16 were American citizens, including seven in high-profile attacks in Brussels in March and Nice, France, in July. Seventeen Americans were injured in the Brussels attack and three in Nice, the report said.

The report attributed the drops to fewer terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, Syria, Nigeria, Pakistan and Yemen. At the same time, the report said attacks in the Congo, Iraq, Somalia, South Sudan and Turkey increased between 2015 and 2016.

READ MORE: Can Trump improve his record-low approval rating?

Originally posted here:
Iran still top state sponsor of terrorism, US report says - PBS NewsHour